Patient Zero
by Shutterbug5269
Summary: This is my submission for the CFPromoter's Castle Halloween Bash. Picks up from the morgue scene in Undead Again and goes AU from there. I am borrowing extensively from one of my favorite shlocky awful Zombie movie ever: The Omega Man (1971) With apologies to Richard Matheson who wrote the original novel "I Am Legend" in 1954.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One  
Prologue**

* * *

_Darkness falls across the land  
The midnight hour is close at hand  
Creatures crawl in search of blood  
To terrorize your neighborhood  
And whosoever shall be found  
Without the soul for getting down  
Must stand and face the hounds of hell  
And rot inside a corpse's shell _

Vincent Price from Michael Jackson's "Thriller"

* * *

When Perlmutter stuck the needle into Kyle Jannings arm to get a fluid sample, and he promptly sat up and leaped to his feet everybody, Beckett included, freaked out.

"He's undead!" Castle shrieked.

"Whoa!" Kate muttered, trying not to lose focus. At a loss for what else to do, she drew her gun and chased after Jannings as he found his footing and ran for the door, Kate trailing right behind, gun in hand.

"Castle, call for backup!" she yelled as she rounded the corner.

Rick turned to the phone on the wall, still intrigued by what just happened, and freaked out all the same as he looked back at Perlmutter, still staring blankly at the scratches on his arm and the broken syringe in his hand.

"How – how do I -?" he said to the man.

"Nine...Castle...dial nine." he said, rooting through drawers to find something to clean and dress his wound.

Rick dialed the number for the outside line, but couldn't help but look back to quip. "Is there a police code for a zombie on the loose?"

Perlmutter rolled his eyes sarcastically and ignored him. Kate came back in a few minutes later, holstering her gun - still visibly creeped out - as she approached Rick.

"He was too far ahead, and too fast. He got away from me." she stated.

* * *

In the days and weeks that followed, while Beckett ran afoul of Cole Maddox, was suspended and her relationship with Castle grew closer, Charlie Coleman was transferred to New York Presbyterian to be treated for his bite wound from Kyle Jannings. Shortly after his arrival, he began to turn... just like he'd feared. He bit another patient and that person turned, who in turn bit an orderly who then went home, turned and infected first his wife and then their children. Sydney Perlmutter succumbed as well, infecting half of the staff at OCME.

* * *

The disease worked its way through Washington Heights and then all of Manhattan like wildfire. The CDC and FEMA stepped in and placed full quarantine procedures into effect, securing the tunnels and closing the bridges and eventually demolishing them, but it did little to stem the tide of the disease. Soon the infected outnumbered then overwhelmed every attempt at containment.

Daylight was the only time that seemed to bring a halt to the spread of the infection. The disease seemed to have left its victims with an extreme sensitivity to light, who subsequently took to prowling the sewers and subway tunnels during the daylight hours. Within months, the pandemic had spread worldwide.

* * *

Everyone except for Ryan had secretly, and not-so-secretly scoffed at Rick for being prepared for a zombie apocalypse during the Jannings case. Only Alexis had been privy to the extent of his preparations...dating back to when he'd all but bought the building they lived in on Broome Street. (And even she thought he had just been role-playing with her during her zombie movie phase at age twelve for most of it)

The loft was far enough away from any adjacent buildings that jumping from one rooftop to another was virtually impossible. Underground parking with a full gate instead of just a drop bar. Only one set of fire escape ladders...all in the back of the building, the bottom two were easily cut away. Only two, easily barricaded entry points but several means of clandestine egress.

Nobody was laughing now.

* * *

Rick's relationship with Kate had grown over the months since the outbreak, the fortification of the building and moving their families into the upper three floors. There had been plenty of room for everyone since the rest of the building's occupants had either evacuated during the mass panic early in the epidemic, were dead or among the infected.

Ryan and Jenny, Lanie and Esposito. Even Martha and Jim had spaces to call their own. The first floor had been cleared and fortified, the front door and every window barricaded solidly. Lanie had set up a lab to study the disease in the now empty doorman's office with isolation labs in the first floor apartments. They had raided two abandoned hospitals and OCME to cobble together what she'd needed.

Her research had received a major boost when one day, Kyle Jannings showed up at their door. He was somehow immune, though a carrier of the disease. They had made him as comfortable as they could in one of the three isolation rooms they'd set up. He understood _why _he had to be kept isolated, but that didn't make it any easier on him.

* * *

Kate did her best to keep Rick occupied, both in their day-to-day and in the bedroom, but Rick had found little to be happy about since Alexis had been bitten.

Watching his only child turn in the isolation cell next to Jannings' had twisted him up in ways that Kate could not possibly imagine. Alexis had beaten her hands and face bloody trying to get out, then suddenly...all of the fight went out of her.

The mindless, zombie-walking phase lasted only a few days, but not her increasing urge to escape confinement. It had taken all of Kate's powers of persuasion to convince Rick that the creature now in that cell was not his little girl anymore and not to release her. That she still posed a danger. They kept her secured to her bed so she could not injure herself again, but as comfortable as circumstances permitted.

Before she had turned, Alexis had insisted upon it... she had asked to speak to Kate alone and made the detective swear on her mother's grave to keep Castle from letting her out. It was her last wish before she turned, so that Lanie could observe her and track the progression of the disease as it ravaged her. To take blood and tissue samples at each stage in the hopes that a cure could be found. Lanie swore to Rick that if a cure _could _be synthesized, Alexis would be the first to get it.

Rick was never quite the same after that though, trapped between pride in his daughter for having been so brave, horrified at what she'd become, and guilt ridden that he hadn't been able to protect her in the first place.

It was one of a select number of things that he and Kate _never _spoke about.

* * *

Instead, they threw themselves into the safety of their small band. Summer was half over, even if it was possible to leave the city, there was nowhere they could go that was as well fortified as the loft now was that could be provisioned fully before winter hit and it would be dark for longer and longer, leaving them vulnerable to the infected.

They would have to hold out...and hope they could make contact with someone on the outside who could offer safe refuge. Lanie's research might just be their only bargaining chip when that day came.

It was also Alexis' only hope.

* * *

_****Author's note** Worry not faithful readers, this story is merely a brief bit of fun for CFPromoter's **_**_**Castle Halloween Bash**_**_** and will likely only be a couple chapters, but no more than five if I'm on a roll. I have a new chapter of "Richard Rodgers, Cyborg" in the works as well and should have it up in the next day or so.**_

_**Enjoy. **_


	2. The Family

**Chapter Two  
The Family**

* * *

_Last fire will rise behind those eyes.  
Black house will rock, blind boys don't lie.  
Immortal fear, that voice so clear.  
Through broken walls, that scream I hear._

Cry, little sister! (Thou shalt not fall)  
Come, come to your brother! (Thou shalt not die)  
Unchain me, sister! (Thou shalt not fear)  
Love is with your brother! (Thou shalt not kill)

G Tom Mac "Cry Little Sister"

* * *

_Previously_

_Instead, they threw themselves into the safety of their small band. Summer was half over, even if it was possible to leave the city, there was nowhere they could go that was as well fortified as the loft now was that could be provisioned fully before winter hit and it would be dark for longer and longer, leaving them vulnerable to the infected._

_They would have to hold out...and hope they could make contact with someone on the outside who could offer safe refuge. Lanie's research might just be their only bargaining chip when that day came._

_It was also Alexis' only hope._

* * *

**One Month Later**

_"Kate, come out!"_

A group of the infected (which had grown larger and larger with each passing day) had taken to shouting every night, led by what was left of a man she had once known well, Josh Davidson. They all looked like Alexis did now, Josh included. All were pale skinned and were sensitive to light. They seemed to be organizing around him of all people.

Alexis had been heard for weeks beforehand muttering about Brother Joshua...about his so-called _"family"_ but nobody had made the connection until he had begun to show up nightly calling on Kate to come out. Even as they burned down a library or computer lab.

The violent encounters with the infected during their foraging expeditions had increased and become more focused and organized in the past few weeks, especially when Kate was out with them. After what had occurred with Alexis and in subsequent encounters they had by popular decision, established rule when foraging: _Stay on the ground floors, near the doors and in the light._

* * *

Even more unnerving, Alexis could be heard muttering the same things they all said, with no explanation for how she knew them nearly word for word.

_"The family is whole."_

_"We shall cleanse the world."_

_"He who is not of the family is evil...and must be cleansed...with blood and fire."_

To hear those words come from Rick's daughter had begun to slowly unnerve Kate and had made Rick become more and more withdrawn, even with her. Kate had chosen him over Josh months ago, whom she had broken up with even before last summer, but now his daughter was somehow under the poor infected bastard's spell.

Rick had gotten drunk the night Alexis had started muttering those words, and taken a shotgun with him back down to the isolation ward. It had taken both Ryan and Esposito to restrain him from killing Kyle Jannings.

In the end only Kate had been able to get through to him and get him back upstairs. The man who had hopped Jannings up on scopolamine and gotten him started biting people had truly set this off. So whomever that was, was long since either dead, or infected himself.

* * *

Lanie's search for a cure continued unchecked. In fact she had redoubled her efforts. She could see what the disease had done to her former intern, what that was doing to Richard Castle and in turn, the effect this was having on Kate. If Lanie Parish had ever held any doubts about how much her best friend loved Richard Castle, those doubts were now gone. His pain had become Kate's, and by extension her own.

"Javi, I need more samples, to keep up my research." Lanie whispered to Esposito in the corridor outside of her lab.

"What do you need, chica?" Javi replied, not sure how to answer.

"Next time you go out, I need you to bring back a live one...or at least one who hasn't been dead long." Lanie said, the strain of searching for a cure had put a strain on their relationship, and she knew she was asking a lot of him.

"I'll do what I can," Esposito said quietly, "but I can't make too many promises."

"These samples are absolutely important to my research...I need access to somebody who's had it longer than Alexis. Having the original strain in Jannings and tracking its progression in her blood-work was a good start, but I need to see if it's mutated over time, not to mention I'll need to test it on somebody with a pulse, eventually."

"You mean...before you use it on Little Castle...you wanna make sure the cure won't kill her." Esposito replied solemnly.

"Whatever you do, don't tell Castle, or bring him along," Lanie cautioned, "I don't want the man to get his hopes up before I have something real to give him."

"Yeah," Esposito agreed, he knew how Castle felt about his daughter, how he was clinging to the thin shred of hope that Lanie could find a cure. He knew it was pulling the man apart, not to mention what his condition was doing to Beckett. He didn't want to let either of them down. "Little Castle's a good kid, she doesn't deserve to go out like this."

Neither of them noticed that Rick had been around the corner listening.

"You need samples, Lanie? You got it." He whispered to himself, secure in the knowledge that there was _finally_ something he could do for his baby girl. So he wouldn't feel so damn helpless all the time.

He raided the armory later that night, put on his _"Writer"_ vest and was out the door at dawn.

* * *

**The Next Morning**

Kate woke early, as was her habit, especially now, but when she reached across to his side of the bed, he was gone, his side of the bed long since cold. _"Had he even come to bed last night?"_ she asked herself, she had been thoroughly exhausted after her turn at the nightly patrol checking all the doors and a walking check of all the stairways and exits.

She had finished her last check of the building as she had every night with Lanie's lab on the first floor, making sure the atrium was securely barred shut and the elevator shafts were clear. She looked in on Alexis, but her demeanor had not changed. Alexis would urge her to go out, or to let her go and that to remain entrenched in the _world that was_ would doom her to the cleansing fire.

Kate had tried to get through to her, like always, but eventually the girl would go back to her ramblings about _"the family"_ and tune her out. It was enough to bring tears to her eyes every time. She couldn't even imagine what it was doing to Rick.

Lanie had wanted her to distract him from the excursion into Central Park to find the live specimens for her to get samples from and the serum to cure the disease. She had just the distraction in mind, in the form of a black lace teddy she had bought for the trip they had planned to take to the Hamptons before the world went to hell. She had been prepared to use every naughty trick in her arsenal to keep him _"distracted"_ until the specimens were safely secured. She'd needed the release only he could provide too.

But he was gone.

"_Castle!"_ she shouted as walked through the study into the kitchen and saw that he wasn't there either, nor was he upstairs. She shouted his name a few more times, each more desperate than the last before going back to the land line that Ryan had rigged up to work inside the building. Ryan and Espo weren't expected to leave for another hour, so she called down to Esposito's room.

"Esposito" he answered tersely.

"Espo...you seen Castle? He isn't here, I was so wiped out after finishing my watch, I'm not sure he even came to bed last night."

No sooner had the words fallen out of Kate's mouth, than there was a banging on the loft door.

"Come in, it's open." Kate shouted, covering the receiver with her hand. To see Ryan burst in the door.

"_Beckett!_ I was just in the armory," Ryan shouted out of breath, "Castle's vest is missing along with an MP-5, one of the Glocks, two flash grenades one of the Tasers and a trank gun!"

"_Shit!"_ Kate thought to herself. _"shit, shit, shit!"_

"You get that Espo?" She said into the phone, her blood pressure rising at the thought that came to her mind. Richard Castle out alone with the infected.

"Damn!" Esposito exclaimed, "Castle must've heard Lanie and I talking outside her lab last night."

This information was not helping Kate's anxiety level at all. She dressed quickly, dashed out the door and down the stairs for the underground parking garage. All three of them reached it at the same time to notice that the police van designed for carrying prisoners to Riker's Island, which they had liberated from the 12th Precinct motor pool, was gone.

Thankfully the van had a radio.

Kate went for the police issue one on her belt and prayed the one in the van was on.

"Castle?" She called out over the radio, trying to keep the desperation out of her voice and failing miserably. To have been out without anyone noticing he must have been gone for hours...likely right after sunup.

The idea of Castle out there alone with the _creepers_, as Martha had taken to calling them...seeking them out in the dark places they haunted during the day...places they generally avoided...for good reason, had her terrified. It felt like her heart had been ripped from her chest and set on fire.

Static was her only response.

Kate was in motion before anyone could stop her. She was halfway to her Harley Softail before anyone could react. Esposito stepped in front of her front wheel, his arms crossed.

"Where the hell are you going?" He said in challenge.

"To get Castle and bring him back, Javi," Kate responded angrily, "get out of my way."

"Castle went alone for a reason, Beckett." Esposito responded, "I may not like it, but I can _respect_ it. He didn't want to endanger anyone else."

"Javi...please." Kate pleaded, her entire demeanor showed her fight to keep her emotions in check. "it's_ my fault_ Alexis was infected in the first place...she_ begged_ me to take her on that damned foraging run...I knew she wasn't ready...but I let her talk me into it anyway... I can't leave him out there alone with those...creepers, I just...can't." Her voice nearly broke at the end.

Javier Esposito could not refute her reasoning. Without any of his own to substitute for it, his loyalty to Beckett kicked in. He tossed her his M-4, handed her two magazines and stepped aside, nodding to Ryan, who opened the iron gate.

"Do you even know where he'd go?" Javi asked.

"Madison Square Garden." Kate replied without skipping a beat.

"How can you be so sure?" He asked.

"You mean, aside from the fact that it is one of the biggest fully enclosed structures in the city, with dozens of places around the complex for small groups of them to hole up during the day?"

"Yeah, aside from that." Javi said.

Kate couldn't help the smirk that crossed her face at his confusion about her certainty.

"Because that's where _Godzilla_ went." Kate stated before she zipped up her motorcycle jacket, revved the motor and roared away into the noonday sun.

* * *

_****Author's note** "Stay on the ground floors, near the doors, and in the light." some of the best zombie survival advice I have ever heard. Bear with me people, only a few more chapters to go. It gets darker before it gets better.**_


	3. Descent

**Chapter Three  
Descent**

* * *

_I'm gonna break the cycle_  
_I'm gonna shake up the system_  
_I'm gonna destroy my ego_  
_I'm gonna close my body now_

_I think I'll find another way_  
_There's so much more to know_  
_I guess I'll die another day_  
_It's not my time to go_

_For every sin, I'll have to pay_  
_I've come to work, I've come to play_  
_I think I'll find another way_  
_It's not my time to go_

Madonna "Die Another Day"

* * *

_Previously_

_"Do you even know where he'd go?" Javi asked._

_"Madison Square Garden." Kate replied without skipping a beat._

_"How can you be so sure?" He asked._

_"You mean, aside from the fact that it is one of the biggest fully enclosed open structures in the city, with dozens of places around the complex for small groups of them to hole up during the day?"_

_"Yeah, aside from that." Javi said._

_Kate couldn't help the smirk that crossed her face at his confusion about her certainty._

_"Because that's where ___Godzilla___ went." Kate stated before she zipped up her motorcycle jacket, revved the motor and roared away into the noonday sun._

* * *

Rick had decided on searching Madison Square Garden for all the logical reasons Kate had told the boys. It was well located with both above and below ground access so that the infected could move about in daylight and at night via the subway tunnel network.

But yeah...The whole _Godzilla_ thing was cool too.

He broke the golden rule when it came to the reality of post contagion New York when he descended the stairs to the subway, but if he wanted two living breathing members of Brother Joshua's _"family" _for Lanie to test her cure on he needed to go where creepers were. It was the only way he could save Alexis. If this worked Lanie might be able to save them all from the fate in store for them...The poor, deluded, dying bastards

Yeah, Kate will be pissed at him, and he will likely spend a few days in the dog house with the boys too, but his baby girl was worth it. He would never recover if he didn't at least try to do _something._

It didn't take long to find what he was looking for, a relatively small warren of them taking shelter in an abandoned subway car. He crept up to one of the open doors, tossed the flash-bang grenade, pulled the cotter pin and tossed it inside, careful to cover his own eyes before it went off.

The creepers screamed almost as one and exited the subway car howling, blinded by the flash grenade. He employed the tranquilizer gun culling two from the fleeing mass of creepers, a man and a woman, with almost uncanny accuracy that even Beckett was still surprised about occasionally.

Rick was not in love with the idea of experimenting on live humans against their will, subjecting them to a possible cure that could end up killing them faster than the disease was doing already to be sure, in fact he found the idea repellent. It was probably how this contagion was created in the first place - some mad scientist playing god. Nobody was sure how long the poor bastard's had. Weeks? Months? Years? It was slowly attacking their central nervous systems almost like a form of Alzheimer's. Alexis' hands were already showing a distinct tremble.

None of their meager resources could explain the shared-mind aspect of the disease though, _that _was a complete mystery. It was like they were all shared a connection, which for whatever reason had Josh Davidson at their center. Alexis had been kept in isolation since she'd been bitten, yet she was spouting the same nonsense about _the family _as the rest of them.

The only explanation that seemed to make any sense was connected to his _Doctors Without Borders _work. All of the broad spectrum inoculations he must have received over the years for everything from smallpox to multiple strains of influenza, to possibly even Ebola must have reacted strangely with the disease, causing it to mutate in him somehow.

Rick pushed his misgivings about collecting what would amount to human guinea pigs and his musings about the former Doctor Motorcycle Boy - turned messiah for the infected aside and back to the task at hand.

He made sure his collar was turned up and the zipper was all the way up on the leather motorcycle jacket he had on before throwing the woman over his shoulder. He was doing this to save his daughter, all other considerations were secondary.

He knew full well that Kate blamed _herself_ for Alexis being bitten.

She tried to hide it from him, but he knew. He felt it in every look she leveled on him when she thought he couldn't see. Saw it eating away at her every time she walked past the photos on the piano or in his office of Alexis in happier times. He saw the weight of it crush her a little more every night when she crept into bed after finishing her security sweep - which he knew for a fact always culminated with the isolation cells in Lanie's lab on the first floor. Guilt for something no one blamed her for - least of all Alexis - was slowly draining the life out of the woman he loved.

Beckett would understand why he had to do this...eventually... once she'd had her say, when she let him explain why it had to be _him_ doing this, not Espo or Ryan, or even her. He couldn't let Alexis down, his baby girl trusted him to fix this...to save her. He would accept the moral ramifications of his actions later when his little girl was herself again. When she was safe.

When this nightmare is over.

Saving Alexis was also the only way he could save Kate, so he would do this thing. Give these two people to Lanie to take blood samples from and test her cure on. Morally repugnant as they both personally thought it to be. He would gladly trade this small portion of his humanity away to save the two most important people in his world. To spare anyone else the burden of it and hope one day to be able to forgive himself. _"Guess Tyson and Dunn were right about me after all," _he thought to himself, _"just for the wrong reason. Not because I like it, but because it must be done to save the ones I love."_

He grabbed the man by collar of the robes they all wore and returned to the steps, grateful for the shaft of direct sunlight coming from the noontime sun. He left the man at the base of the stairs and carried the woman up into the sunlight and put her in the van, locking her to one of the seats with the cuff set into the floor before locking her in the van.

When he returned to the base of the steps where he had left the other one, the guy was gone.

_"There's enough tranquilizer in those darts to drop a horse...Must have been dragged off"_

Rick thought to himself, wishing he hadn't left the MP-5 in the passenger seat of the van. He checked the action on his handgun, loaded another dart into the trank gun made sure the taser was in easy reach under his jacket and stepped back into the shadows of the subway tunnel.

He never had the slightest sign he was in trouble until he felt multiple hands grab him from behind and yank him off his feet. The last thing he heard before the blow to his head and the lights went out was the sensation of being lifted and the familiar voice of Josh Davidson.

"Bring him, children, but do not give him the marks. I must put him to the questioning."

He heard nothing more after that, and saw only shadows.

* * *

_****Author's note** Only another chapter or two of this, I promise, then I'm back to to my other works in progress.  
**_

_**I would deeply appreciate it if you would keep your reviews on point to this chapter of THIS story. **_

_**I do not appreciate derogatory or demeaning comments about my writing style, my choice of genre, or my word choice. Nor will I take such comments seriously, regardless of whether they are anon or not. (though I do give style points for logging in and owning your opinions) I WILL IGNORE THEM and write my stories as I see fit, so please don't waste your time or mine.  
**_

_**I accept that my work might not be everybody's cup of tea... I tend to write dark and very AU tales. If you don't like angst or AU, or darker story lines please feel free to adjust your search parameters to the type of genre you prefer. There are a lot of fine fanfic writers in other genres, all of whom do excellent work.  
**_

_**I will not be offended. I honestly don't read a lot of Angst myself. (bet nobody saw that coming, eh?)**_

_**If you wish to ask me about the status of one of my other stories which I have not updated in a while, I have posted an item titled "Story Updates" in the hopes of putting people at ease that I have not forgetten those stories. Please direct your comments of that nature either there or the story you are asking about, as pestering me constantly about one story in the reviews for a different story is inappropriate and not really gonna get you the desired result. **_

_**Thank you in advance for your cooperation.  
**_

_***steps off soapbox***_


	4. A Day At The Garden

_****Authors note** As a form of civil disobedience directed at those people both anon and signed in (you know who you are) who have made a point of reviewing my work for the sole purpose of giving me a hard time about my use of the word "gotten" as a past participle of the word "got" I will now be using "gotten" as often as its grammatical context will allow to the exclusion of any other grammatical choice in every chapter of every story I write from now until **_** I DECIDE****_ to stop. _**

_**I have used it in my writing since junior high school, (1983 &amp; 84 in case you're curious) and not one English teacher I have ever had since (both high school AND college) has ever taken issue with it. I trust people who actually went to school for it and have made it their job to teach the English language more than some troll on the internet whose help" I neither need nor have I asked for. **_

_**Regardless of how long you may have been "reading all types of material" that does not make you an authority on the English language. (hence "false authority") I've read for over 41 years myself (taught MYSELF to read in the public library before kindergarten to be precise) and I have never taken that as license to tell other people how to write. Get a degree in actually TEACHING English and we'll talk. Until then, take your UNSOLICITED advice and kindly shove it where the sun doesn't shine.**_

_**I will not be dictated to about word choice by intellectual (and I use the term loosely here) snobs whose only known qualifications seem to be that they can read, and they like to troll fan fiction sites. Don't like it? Don't read. It isn't that hard to understand.**_

**/end rant/ back to my writing. (This chapter was originally supposed to come out before the one shot "With Deepest Condolences")**

* * *

**Chapter Four**

**A Day At The Garden**

* * *

_Previously_

When Rick returned to the base of the steps where he had left the other one, the guy was gone.

__"There's enough tranquilizer in those darts to drop a horse...Must have been dragged off"__

Rick thought to himself, wishing he hadn't left the MP-5 in the passenger seat of the van. He checked the action on his handgun, loaded another dart into the trank gun made sure the taser was in easy reach under his jacket and stepped back into the shadows of the subway tunnel.

He never had the slightest sign he was in trouble until he felt multiple hands grab him from behind and yank him off his feet. The last thing he heard before the blow to his head and the lights went out was the sensation of being lifted and the familiar voice of Josh Davidson.

"Bring him, children, but do not give him the marks. I must put him to the questioning."

He heard nothing more after that, and saw only shadows.

Richard Castle awoke to pain like he had never experienced before.

Brother Vulcan, as Simmons now referred himself, certainly knew how to dish it out. Slowly methodically, repeatedly he lashed out, the deep baritone of his voice punctuated every blow with the wooden truncheon he beat him with.

Vulcan's questions were persistent...some were about the loft...it's defenses...it's hidden exits.

Questions Rick refused to answer and paid for his refusal with another painful blow, or water poured down his throat until he fought to breathe and nearly passing out.

Rick refused to betray Kate and the others by giving up the information they wanted. Vulcan Simmons knew continued torture would get them nowhere, but kept hitting him anyway. He seemed to be enjoying it, actually.

"Maybe she's not as sweet on you as you are on her, eh boy?" Vulcan taunted menacingly. The last blow doing more damage than intended. "Maybe you've gotten your head turned by her for nothing."

"Hold, Brother Vulcan. Enough." Joshua stated, stilling Vulcan's hand. "Your tactics have gotten us nothing. Bring him to the great hall."

Two of Joshua's goons each took an arm and dragged Rick into what had once been the Madison Square Garden arena to the sound of loud shouts and catcalls as he was dragged front and center into the boxing ring...the ropes long removed for easy viewing and a podium at its center. It was obvious that _"Brother Joshua"_ regularly preached to the faithful here. The acoustics were nearly perfect.

The throng grew silent as Joshua raised his arms, their attention rapt as he began to speak.

"He has confessed all, brothers!" he began, "Murder! Use of forbidden tools! Practice of forbidden arts! Science! Medicine! Forbidden weapons! Machinery! Electricity! Neither he nor his people have shared in the punishment or bear the marks!"

The crowd stomped as one at Joshua's words of condemnation.

"Marks?" Castle choked out from where he was forced to stand painfully.

Joshua turned to him. "Have you really not seen? Does your own _daughter _not bear the marks? For which you have kept her imprisoned these many months?"

The two goons hauled him up to stand at attention...causing his injured ribs to announce themselves painfully, making it hard for him to breathe before Joshua raised a hand to relax their grip as he turned back to the assembled crowd.

"Show him, my children!" Joshua shouted for all to hear, "Show him the pretty marks."

As one, Joshua and the assembled crowd of the infected took off their sunglasses, revealing their albino, light-sensitive eyes in the dim torchlight of the hall.

"These are the marks, Richard. The punishment which you and those like you brought upon us. In the beginning, we tried to help one another, those that were left. We tried to clean things up, set things straight. We buried things and burned things. Then it came to me that we were chosen. Chosen for just this work: To bury what was dead. To burn what was evil. To destroy that which was dangerous."

"You're barbarians." Castle choked out again.

"_Barbarians_?" Joshua shouted, "_You _call _us _barbarians? Well... it is an honorable title. We mean to cancel out the world your so-called _civilization_ made. We will erase from history a world in which machinery and weapons threatened more than they offered. When all are brought into the family, the last vestiges of that hell will be gone!"

At this the assembled throng hooted...hollered and stomped their feet in joint zeal at his statement. When their exaltation subsided, he once again called for silence.

"Brother Vulcan?" Josh stated.

"We are ready, brother." Vulcan Simmons replied.

"Take him back to the tunnels and give him the marks. He will tell us all in time."

"Yes brother." Vulcan stated, eyeing Castle darkly, the idea of using him against the very people he held most dear appealed to something in the man's psyche. "Bring him."

Joshua put a hand on Vulcan's shoulder. "Let go of the old ways, brother the old hatreds, they belong in the past."

With that they dragged Richard Castle kicking and screaming from the hall to the shouts and jeers of the crowd. The small group was halfway to the tunnel where they'd found him. From the little light he'd been allowed to see, Castle knew it was nearly sundown... that help was likely _not _forthcoming.

Even he was surprised when the first shots came. Simmons pushed him to the ground and drew the pistol the man had taken from him.

_"So much for their hatred of technology"_ Rick mused to himself as Simmons ducked to the side to return fire, but his head exploded in a pink mist before he could line his sights up.

"Castle!" Kate shouted as she fired another five round burst from the M-4, killing two more creepers and causing the rest to scatter.

"Beckett," Castle groaned, "over here!"

"Can you walk?" She hushed... though her anger with him warred with her joy to see him alive, the sight of him, bruised, battered and bloody did something painful to her insides.

"I can damned well walk out of here!" Rick replied more strongly, buoyed by the fact that she was here, that Kate had come for him...that she'd kept looking even though it was nearly sundown.

"Back behind me Castle, my bike!" Kate shouted, tossing him a pistol.

Castle mounted the bike, starting the engine with a throaty roar as Kate walked backwards toward him, firing into the tunnel as she came, before she slipped on behind him.

"Go! Go! Go!" Kate shouted and Castle gunned it, aiming for the nearest exit tunnel into the waning light of the setting sun.

"The van..." Castle shouted painfully over the engine. _"Please don't let this all be for nothing" _he thought to himself.

"Sent Kevin and Javi for it hours ago," Kate replied, "They found the unconscious one by the turnstiles too...must've been left there to sleep it off after they grabbed you."

Castle turned the bike toward the loft tightly enough for his ribs to renew their protest.

"One Lincoln forty to Rook's nest," Kate said into her throat Mic, "heading back to the barn."

* * *

When they arrived at the loft's underground parking garage, Rick and Kate dismounted her motorcycle. She was about to launch into the angry tirade that had been building within her since she had discovered he was gone, but Rick only got ten steps toward the stairwell before collapsing to the floor.

Kate was on him in half a heartbeat.

"Think they... cracked a rib... can't...breathe..." Rick moaned as Kate dropped to her knees and pulled his head into her lap. Her hand shook as she grabbed the call button on her radio.

"Javi... Ryan... _anybody_... get Lanie... sub-basement stairwell... Castle's hurt bad... hurry!"

Kate stroked his hair and did her best to keep him calm... keep him breathing.

"Shh... Castle... shh... just breathe..."Kate whispered in his ear, "breathe for me... nice and easy babe, help's coming."

Lanie came running down the stairs moments later carrying her doctor's bag.

"Do something Lanie... I can't lose him...not now." Kate pleaded, she hadn't begged for anything in her entire life, not even when she was reoccurring from her shooting, so Lanie knew it must be bad.

"Support his neck, Kate, I need to get his shirt open to examine him." Lanie commanded gently.

She didn't bother with the buttons as she tore the shirt open. Even a decade as a medical examiner and having a cop for a best friend had not prepared her for the bruises she found across Rick's chest.

He had been beaten methodically, bruises... spaced evenly across the front of his torso. Some with the long shaft of a wooden rod... some with the rounded end of it. She was sure she would find a few matching ones on his back too.

"Sorry writer boy, this is gonna hurt," Lanie whispered, trying to be as gentle as she could.

Rick hissed in agony as Lanie probed gently with her fingers, seeking out each of his ribs first in front then in back. Kate sucked in a breath every time Rick gasped or cried out when Lanie pressed her fingers across where his ribs met his sternum, then again down his back. Kate was in tears by the time she was done.

"Okay, baby," Lanie whispered soothingly to her friend, "I didn't find any broken ones, but somebody worked him over pretty good. I'll tape his ribs and run a blood panel for the sickness, but I don't see any bite marks or open wounds, so that's a good sign."

Ryan and Esposito appeared around the corner, pushing the ambulance gourney from Lanie's lab.

"Bad news, girlfriend," she stated while the boys loaded Castle and carefully, but securely strapped him down, mindful of his bruised ribs, "I'll have to isolate him til I've run the blood tests."

"No..." Kate cried out..."No...you can't... he has to be..."

Esposito held her back as Ryan and Lanie wheeled him to the elevator, restraining her from following until he saw the doors close. All the fight went out of her after that and she collapsed into a sobbing wreck.

"I..." Kate sobbed, "I can't..."

"I know." Esposito whispered, doing his best to comfort her, knowing it wasn't nearly enough. It wouldn't be until she knew that writer boy would be okay. He had been both really brave and really stupid, going out on his own today, but in his soul Javier Esposito blamed himself. He felt he should have seen something like this coming ever since _Little Castle_ had been bitten. It had torn his heart out to see the man running himself into the ground while the disease ravaged his kid and turned her into one of... _"them". _

"She has to be sure Beckett, it looks good but she has to be sure."

He tried to throw all the sincerity he could muster behind it as he helped Kate up the three flights of stairs to the place she shared with Castle. As bad an idea as letting her pace a groove into the floor of Lanie's lab would be, he was uncertain about leaving her alone, surrounded by Castle's things. He didn't like it, but he knew this was how she dealt with things.

Castle was the only person he knew, Lanie included, who could draw Beckett out when she was like this. She'd completely shut down on anyone else. He wanted everything to be okay, and he'd have Ryan and Jenny light a candle for the man, but the soldier in him told him to prepare for the worst.

It was gonna be a long night.

* * *

Kate had no sooner shut the door on Javi when she began to shed her clothes on the way to the bathroom. Early on they had a system set up so everybody could shower if they needed. Everybody had marveled at the lengths Castle had gone to in his preparations for the _"zombie apocalypse" _that they all would have scoffed at once upon a time, but were now crucial to their survival.

Usually she took baths because it conserved water - especially when she and Castle bathed together - but this time she took a shower...She just wanted the smell of that subway tunnel...and of her fear that she was losing him to be washed away.

When she got out, she dried herself and found one of his shirts from the hamper - the one he'd worn yesterday to be precise - and put it on along with a pair of underwear and her sleep shorts. The shirt still smelled like him... as did his side of the bed when she crawled under the covers. There were no suspects to question, no doors to break down, nothing she could do to effect the outcome. Because of the specter of the virus, she couldn't even sit with him and hold his hand while he slept.

"Was this what it was like for him all last summer?" Kate thought to herself as the tears came, followed by deep choking sobs, not knowing where he found the strength to make it through four months when a single night of not knowing made her want to crawl into a hole and die. She curled up on his side of the bed wrapped in his shirt, buried her face in his pillow and quietly cried herself to sleep.

* * *

The next morning, Kate woke to a loud pounding on the door. She dragged herself out of bed, wrapped a robe around her slender frame and opened the door to see the haggard visage of Lanie Parish standing in the doorway.

"He's clean," Lanie whispered, "no sign of the disease." Kate nearly collapsed with relief.

It was obvious to Kate that her friend had been up all night running blood test after blood test. Waiting for the results then double checking her findings. The lines on her face and the dark circles under her eyes bore mute testimony to the lengths Lanie Parish had gone to in order to look her in the eye with good news.

"Thank you," Kate whispered, unsure if she was speaking to her friend or offering a silent prayer of gratitude to the universe for another of what she saw as a dwindling number of second chances she felt she had with Richard Castle... the man she loved.

"I am going to bed and sleep for a day or two." Lanie said with a wan smile, "go look in on Writer Boy. I gave him something for the pain and to help him sleep after taping his ribs last night. He should be waking up any time in the next hour or so."

At Kate's bright beaming smile and watery eyes, Lanie added, "Just go easy on him, girlfriend, they may have gone to some length not to infect him, but they worked him over pretty good, his ribs are severely bruised and he shows signs that water was forced down his throat. You may need to keep the _horizontal _activities to a minimum for a while."

* * *

When Rick's body finally dragged him back to consciousness, the first thing he felt was the tightness in his chest. He'd remembered almost fainting from the pain when Lanie taped his badly bruised ribs. She must have given him something, because he only felt the pressure of the dressing like a stone on his chest.

She'd whispered in his ear that they were keeping Kate away until she ran her blood tests as the first of several needles was pressed in his arm. He'd known what the tests would show, but he also knew they had to be sure.

When he opened his eyes, he found Kate sitting next to him, stroking his hair. She had obviously dolled herself up before coming to see him, because she was as beautiful as he'd ever seen her. The straps holding him to the isolation ward bed were gone. _"Lanie must have removed them, or she'd have woken me taking them off." _Rick thought to himself.

The way she lightly brushed her fingers over his temple, he figured he had a hell of a bruise there where they'd hit him when they took him because Simmons had gone out of his way not to hit him in the face. The stricken look on her face tore his heart to pieces.

"I love you, Richard Castle," Kate whispered with watery eyes, trying for snark but failing, "but don't you ever do something like that without me again."

Rick took one of her hands and drew it to his face, causing her to shudder as she touched the angry purplish bruise there.

"Alexis..." Rick whispered, "my little girl... needs that cure... had to do _something..._"

"Shh babe, I know." Kate whispered trying to soothe both him and herself, her thoughts shifting to his daughter not two doors away, still babbling Josh's mad delusions.

"Rick..." Kate whispered. "I can't end up like that... one of... _them..."_

Rick squeezed her hand on his face, running his thumb over her knuckles, pulling it to his chest over his heart.

"I promise, Kate," He whispered quietly as he lowered her forehead to his, "if it comes to that, I'll do us both."

Rick's right hand slipped into his pocket, finding the ring he'd bought after that day on the swings where she'd tried to tell him what she wanted, only neither of them had communicated well that day. Only during his brief dalliance with Jacinda, when he thought she didn't want him. had it not been in his pocket.

He slipped the ring on her finger when she nodded at his silent question, then kissed her hand and whispered,

"Till death do us part."

* * *

_****A/N** Awwwwwwwww! I have made the grammar &amp; syntax trolls angry! It's cute how they get indignant about it, as if they think I should care. I didn't even use "gotten" all that often until they made a big deal about it.**_

_**BECAUSE of them I am intentionally using it three times as often in protest of their arrogant presumption, thinking they can dictate to me how the written English language works. When they grasp that and back off I'll drop it.  
**_

_**If they don't, then in the words of my generation, they can sit on it and rotate.**_


	5. Build Coffins, That's All You'll Need

**Chapter Five  
Bring Coffins, That's All You'll Need**

* * *

_I'll take seven lives for one  
And then my only father's son  
As sure as I ever did love him  
I am not afraid_

_This world is spinning around me  
The whole world is spinning around me  
All life is future to past  
Every breath leaves me one less to my last  
_Dream Theater: "Pull Me Under"

* * *

_Previously_

_"Rick..." Kate whispered. "I can't end up like that... one of... them..."_

_Rick squeezed her hand on his face, running his thumb over her knuckles, pulling it to his chest over his heart._

_"I promise, Kate," He whispered quietly as she lowered her forehead to his, "if it comes to that, I'll do us both."_

_Rick's right hand slipped into his pocket, finding the ring he'd bought after that day on the swings where she'd tried to tell him what she wanted, only neither of them had communicated well that day. Only during his brief dalliance with Jacinda, when he thought she didn't want him. had it not been in his pocket._

_He slipped the ring on her finger when she nodded at his silent question, then kissed her hand and whispered,_

_"Till death do us part."_

* * *

While Rick's ribs healed over the next six weeks and the group worked to further provision and fortify the building on 535 Broome Street, Lanie's work on a cure progressed. Having other subjects to take blood samples from had helped immensely. Especially after they heard from another group not unlike themselves in Boston.

Dr. Maura Isles worked as a medical examiner with the Boston PD before the outbreak, much like Lanie had in New York, but had access to a much more state of the art lab to work with, as they had cleared out one of the last hospitals to still be running when everything went to hell. Javi and Kevin had met up with two of her people to exchange blood and tissue samples, set up a communication network and discuss the possibility of them going there and combining their resources. According to Dr. Isles they had plenty of room.

Former Detective Rizzoli and her brother certainly made an impression on the two. It was a place to start.

Thanks to Dr. Isles' insights and the samples she'd sent along as a gesture of good faith, Lanie was finally able to synthesize a possible cure. The first test subject went into convulsions and died on the spot, but from the postmortem tests Lanie had conducted, he'd had the disease the longest and was likely too close to the N-stage for the cure to do more than kill him.

The female had been infected for barely longer than Alexis. She slipped into a coma after being injected with the cure, but recovered several days later and had been steadily improving every day since. There was hope for the first time in weeks. When Dr. Isles confirmed Lanie's results, with tests of her own. Then and only then did Lanie explain her findings to Rick and Kate.

With Rick's consent they injected Alexis with the cure. She screamed obscenities and hurtful angry spiteful things about Kate and her father as they struggled to keep her still while Lanie gave her the shot, but afterward she whimpered and fell silent, still whispering Joshua's rhetoric as she drifted off.

Lanie put in an IV saline line to keep her hydrated and they waited.

Three days later, when Alexis finally opened her eyes, they were once again the pale blue that Rick remembered. She was still a little light-sensitive, and they would be keeping her isolated for observation for the time being, but the "marks" as Joshua called them were gone. Her connection to "Brother Joshua" had been broken.

They finally had what Alexis had hoped for before the disease had taken her away. Her blood could now be used to synthesize not just a cure, but a vaccine to prevent future outbreaks as well.

They would keep running tests and in the spring they would make the move to Boston.

A few weeks later, nobody seemed to notice when the female test subject who gave them the name Elena Markov had slipped away from a foraging party and returned to the warren near Madison Square Garden where Castle had found her. Three days later her body was found hanging by her ankles from a lamp-post in front of their building having been stabbed over fifty times.

The next night, and every night until the snow and cold made it nearly impassable, Joshua's faithful would gather, filling the streets from dusk to dawn to chant.

"You have damned her Richard. Your science has damned you all."

"The family is whole, we shall cleanse the world."

It was now a race against time to see whose vision of the future would be realized. For Brother Joshua and the majority of his followers it was already too late, but in their disease addled brains they simply didn't know it. His way did not lead to the utopia he envisioned, it lead only to death.

Lanie and Dr. Isles best guess was that Joshua and the majority of his apostles had about a year now that the terminal stage of the disease had been reached.

* * *

**May**

It had been a long, cold winter with more snow than New York City had seen in years. Though none of the residents of 535 Broome Street could venture out, it also kept Brother Joshua and his minions from the surface as well.

Everyone took a turn clearing the roof of the building of snow. A task that was necessary not only to prevent the roof from collapsing but to keep cabin fever at bay. They were far from idle over the winter though, before the weather made the city streets impassable, Ryan and Esposito had appropriated two moving trucks to transport their supplies. They would be ready to go as soon as they got the message from their friends in Boston. They'd gotten one of the fire boats from Boston Harbor running and would meet them at the USS Intrepid Museum.

Brother Joshua and his followers had set fire to the grand old lady and burned her to the waterline, but the pier was still accessible and they had a better line of sight than they would at New York Harbor. If he and his followers did put in an appearance, the fire-boat's hoses would certainly come in handy.

They would have to move fast and hit hard on their exodus, Brother Joshua and his people were out in force as soon as the snow had melted and the flooding had cleared in the subway tunnels. They banged on light-posts and threw rocks at windows every night. It was only a matter of time before they battered their way inside.

It was time to go.

* * *

Halfway to the remains of the Intrepid museum, they saw that Joshua had made his play. His people had moved a car and two trucks into place which would have to be moved. They couldn't risk damaging their cargo by battering their way through. It took an hour, but when they gathered back at the motorcade...Kate was gone.

"We have to find her." Espo said curtly, "we cant leave her to them now that we have a cure."

"We cant stay out here exposed for very long." Ryan reminded him, his concern for Beckett weighing on his decision against the fact that his very pregnant wife was in the car.

"Go, guys, I'll get her." Castle said without reservation.

"Castle, think about your family." Espo said, "I should be the one to go."

"No, Sito, I love her and I can't leave without her." Castle replied, shouting the man down. I know where they'll take her. Back to the loft. He wants to make a point before he turns her. Just like he did before he tried to turn me."

Esposito handed him a shotgun and a dead-man switch. "If you're going back then take these. The whole lab is rigged to go, incendiaries in case any of the subjects got out."

At Castle's harsh look, Espo shrugged. "It was Lanie's and little Castle's idea, but we couldn't risk them infecting everybody."

Rick clapped him on the back and said, "Get out of here, Espo. Keep my mother and daughter safe. Whatever happens, it's been an honor."

With that, Castle took one of the cars and was gone.

"Why do I have this strange feeling, like I'm never gonna see them again?" Ryan said solemnly.

"Stow that shit, bro," Esposito replied before turning to the others. "Come on children, we've got a long way to go."

Rick knew as soon as he got to the loft that there was no chance of him fighting his way in to get to Kate, but he knew Joshua...he liked to put on a show. As long as,he got to Kate, the rest would be okay. He left the shotgun in the car and let the two guarding the door take him without a fight.

He only hoped they didn't search him too closely.

When they dragged him to Lanie's lab he knew how hopeless it was. Kate was standing meekly in the far corner with a fresh bite mark on her neck. He closed his eyes knowing all was lost. He'd never get her out of there willingly. If he escaped alive he would never see her again. Joshua would see to that.

While Joshua's people trashed every breakable object in the lab, turning over tables and destroying everything in an orgy of violence, he used the momentary distraction to slip his hand into his jacket pocket, gripped the dead man switch and activated it.

He'd made Kate a promise last fall and he would keep it. He would not let her be used against the people she loved. If Joshua fucking Davidson wanted his moment to gloat he would feign surrender and allow him to have it. But that was all the victory he would permit.

When his people finished their destructive binge, Joshua began to speak;

"We waited for you, Richard, so you could see this: The end. The end of all you were. You see, none of it was real. It was all an illusion. Your art, your science, it was all a nightmare. Now it's done. Finished."

Joshua turned to his followers,

"My brethren, our task is nearly complete. This place was the last bastion of those who brought the punishment to us. We have cleansed and purged it from the world. Now we must build."

Rick turned and looked Kate in the eyes, whispered, "I love you Kate... always" pulled the dead man switch from his pocket and tossed it at Joshua's feet, the switch snapped open and the timer activated.

"Build coffins. That's all you'll need."

Anything Josh Davidson might have had to say after that was lost in a flash of brilliant white light and cleansing fire.

* * *

"_Rick? Rick? Wake up, babe...Please come back to me."_

The world slowly, gradually coalesced around Richard Castle, the regular beeping of a heart monitor playing counterpoint as his eyes finally slipped open. Though the world around him was still a blur, Kate's face above him was the only thing in perfect focus. Tears running down her cheeks her mascara ruined and showing the tracks where they flowed.

Slowly, as his eyesight began to take in more of his surroundings he saw the singed, ruined wedding dress thrown, discarded over a chair near his hospital bed.

"Kate...where? Where are we? What an I doing here?" The last thing he remembered was throwing the dead-man switch followed by the explosion. _"How can I be here...I should be dead"_

"Richard Edgar Alexander Rodgers Castle, don't you ever do that to me again."Kate whispered before she burst into tears again and buried her face in his chest. He hadn't thought he'd said that last part out loud.

"What happened?" Rick whispered, weakly moving her face back in line with his own, "Kate... love... talk to me."

"You had taken the dissolution of marriage certificate to your lawyer and were driving back with the marriage license for our wedding..." Kate's breath hitched on a sob before she continued, "an SUV... ran you off the road...there was a fire..."

That was as far as Kate got before her emotions got the better of her and she dissolved into a fit of sobs. before she managed to get her breathing under control.

"I thought I'd lost you." she whispered, as if afraid to even say the thought aloud, for fear it would suddenly come true.

"How long?" Rick whispered.

"Four days." Kate gasped, "You were in a coma for four days."

Kate allowed herself to finally fully break down, because Rick was there to catch her.

"I'm so glad you came back for me." Kate whispered as she allowed herself to be pulled onto the bed with him.

"Always, Kate," Rick whispered into her hair. "I will always come back for you."

**The End**


End file.
